“We see no signs that Israel is committing genocide in Gaza,” Fischer stressed to reporters at the press briefing as he was quoted by Anadolu news agency.
He went on to say in reference to a report published by the German Bild newspaper on the topic: “In this light, you may also be able to assess the reporting, and the accuracy of this reporting.”
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on 16 October promised that Germany would “always” continue delivering arms to Israel for its war against Lebanon and the genocide of Palestinians in Gaza.
“There are deliveries and there will always be further deliveries. Israel can rely on that,” Scholz said in remarks to parliament, adding that Germany must keep Israel “in a position to defend its country”.
The United States is overwhelmingly the biggest supplier of arms to Israel. In 2023 69% of Israel’s arm imports came from the US, according to a report into international arms transfers by the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI). Germany was the second largest, providing 30%, followed by Italy with 0.9%. The UK, France and Spain were among other minor contributors.
A Steering Committee for the Lebanon Response Plan (LRP) was formed today following the endorsement of the humanitarian and stabilization response plan for Lebanon for 2024. The meeting was co-chaired by the Prime Minister and the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator of the UN. It was attended by the Deputy Prime Minister and Ministers of Education and Higher Education, Public Health, Social Affairs, Energy and Water, Labor, Agriculture and Environment; alongside the Ambassadors to Lebanon of Canada, France, the EU, Germany and the charge d‘affaires for the US; as well as Representatives of UN Agencies and national and international NGOs.
Below are the opening remarks as delivered by the UN Resident and Humanitarian Coordinator in the LRP Steering Committee meeting:
Your Excellency, Prime Minister Mikati, esteemed ministers, honorable ambassadors, distinguished guests, dear colleagues, good morning.
We gather here today at a truly unprecedented time for Lebanon. This country has already faced many years of multi-layered crises. Over the past year, the escalation of hostilities has inflicted severe damage on communities in the South. In the last weeks, the violence has intensified, causing widespread civilian casualties, mass displacement, and extensive destruction across the country.
Healthcare and frontline workers have come under attack, as have civil defense centers and water supply systems, pushing essential services to the brink of collapse. This must stop.
In 1996, Israeli artillery shelling on a United Nations compound housing hundreds of displaced people in Qana killed at least 100 civilians and wounded scores more people, including four U.N. peacekeepers. During the 2006 war, an Israeli strike on a residential building killed nearly three dozen people, a third of them children. Israel said at the time that it struck a Hezbollah rocket launcher behind the building.
The Israelis „intentionally targeted a meeting of the municipal council to discuss the city‘s service and relief situation“ to aid people displaced by the Israeli campaign, caretaker Prime Minister Najib Mikati said.
The U.N. mission in Lebanon (UNIFIL) said its peacekeepers observed an Israeli tank firing at their watchtower near southern Lebanon‘s Kfar Kela on Wednesday morning. Two cameras were destroyed, and the tower was damaged, UNIFIL said.
(October 10, 2024)
Lapid advocated regime change in Lebanon, saying, “the international community will need to appoint a sort of oversight committee for Lebanon to manage its civilian life for a set period until elections can be held and a new government can take control.”
Crucial to this effort would be the establishment of a collaborator Lebanese army loyal to Israel and its Western and Gulf allies.
(…)
Lapid claimed it would be easy to recruit Lebanese by paying soldiers in a new army $500 a month. New recruits would then be trained by French, Emirati, and US military officers.
The South Lebanon Army (SLA) was established by Israel in 1976 after the collapse of the Lebanese government due to civil war.
Since 1978, Unifil has lost 337 peacekeepers, making Lebanon the most costly, in human terms, of all the UN peacekeeping operations. But despite these risks it has remained in post. Throughout Unifil’s deployment, IDF has put it under pressure both directly and through a proxy force, the South Lebanon Army (SLA). As such Unifil has a strong institutional memory of staying put in the direst of circumstances which makes it unlikely to recommend a drawdown.
(September 22, 2024)
Israel‘s Diaspora Affairs Minister Amichai Chikli accused Lebanon of not fulfilling the definition of a state and argued that the Israeli military should establish buffer zones inside of Lebanon in order to protect Israeli citizens living in the country‘s north.
More than 10,900 injured since Oct. 8, 2023, says Lebanese Health Ministry
Last Saturday alone, Israeli airstrikes killed 51 and injured 174, according to the ministry.
At least 41 people were killed and 124 wounded by Israeli forces, raising the death toll to 1,356 since Israel began escalating strikes on Lebanon on 23 September.
Monday‘s deaths included 21 people who were killed in an Israeli strike on the village of Aitou, located in the Christian-majority Zgharta district in northern Lebanon.
Harris pursues a policy of death in Gaza, and she expects we will vote for her.
We need to work hard to make sure that she will not be elected to the presidency. Not only will this punish Harris, but it will also send a signal to all politicians that you won’t be rewarded with our votes when you engage in genocide. This movement will transform American politics and bring civil rights into US foreign policy.
The Lebanese Red Cross said that Israel‘s attack on a building in Aitou in north Lebanon‘s Zgharta district killed at least 18 people.
It is the first town the Christian-majority town is hit during Hezbollah‘s current clashes with Israel.
Hezbollah has little to no presence in the area.
(September 30, 2024)
„The Democrats cannot win without the support of the Muslim American community. And that community has left the station and is not coming back unless the Democrats decide that it‘s more important to them to win the election than it is to conduct the genocide,“ Stein said in an interview with Newsweek.
„So they have to do a 180 on the genocide and they don‘t appear willing to do that. They could win those votes back, but it doesn‘t look like that‘s on the cards. So it looks like they are sacrificing several swing states.“ Israel denies it is conducting genocide.
Two weeks of Israel‘s bombardment of Lebanon has resulted in destruction, civilian casualties and fear that this time will be worse than 1982
(October 13, 2024)
The death toll from Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon since the beginning of the Hezbollah-Israel conflict on 8 October 2023 has reached 2,255, with injuries totalling 10,524, the Lebanese health ministry said.
On Friday alone, Israeli airstrikes killed 26 and injured 144 in Lebanon, Xinhua news agency reported, quoting the ministry.
List of countries which Israel maintains diplomatic relations with:
Nicaragua is breaking off diplomatic relations with Israel, the Central American nation said on Friday, calling the Israeli government „fascist“ and „genocidal.“
(October 12, 2024)
Israeli airstrikes on Lebanon Friday left 26 dead and 144 injured, according to the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health’s Emergency Operations Center.
The attacks are part of an ongoing conflict that has claimed 2,255 lives and injured 10,524 since the aggression began.
(October 11, 2024)
The death toll from Israeli attacks on Lebanon since October 2023 has risen to 2,229, with 10,380 people injured.
Over the past 24 hours, 57 airstrikes were recorded, bringing the total number of Israeli assaults since the start of the aggression to 9,588, according to a statement released Friday by the Lebanese Government Emergency Committee
„Wir haben Waffen geliefert, und wir werden Waffen liefern“, stellte Scholz in seiner Rede vor den Abgeordneten klar. Die Bundesregierung habe Entscheidungen getroffen, „die auch sicherstellen, dass es demnächst weitere Lieferungen geben wird“.
„We have not decided not to supply weapons. We have supplied weapons and we will supply weapons,“ Scholz told parliament at an event to commemorate the victims of the Oct. 7 Hamas attack, countering an accusation from opposition leader Friedrich Merz.
The government had made decisions „that also ensure that there will be further deliveries soon,“ the chancellor said.
The U.N. peacekeeping mission in Lebanon, known as UNIFIL, said in a statement that its headquarters and positions “have been repeatedly hit” by Israeli forces.
It said an Israeli tank “directly” fired on an observation tower at the force’s headquarters in the town of Naqoura, Lebanon, and that soldiers had attacked a bunker near where peacekeepers were sheltering, damaging vehicles and a communication system. It said an Israeli drone was seen flying to the bunker’s entrance.
Over the past 24 hours, 36 fatalities and 150 injuries were reported in various regions of Lebanon due to the Israeli attacks, said the statement.
Lebanon-based militant group Hezbollah has been exchanging fire with Israeli forces across the Lebanese-Israeli border since Oct 8, 2023, to show solidarity with Hamas.
There are many areas to volunteer, and we encourage you to join. But we want to make sure that you are volunteering in an area for which you may be able to devote time. Please indicate what are the areas that you could volunteer.
Harris pursues a policy of death in Gaza, and she expects we will vote for her.
We need to work hard to make sure that she will not be elected to the presidency. Not only will this punish Harris, but it will also send a signal to all politicians that you won’t be rewarded with our votes when you engage in genocide. This movement will transform American politics and bring civil rights into US foreign policy.
In an interview with the CBS television network aired on Monday night, the Democratic presidential candidate said Iran is the “obvious” answer when asked about the country she considers to be the US’s “greatest adversary”.
“Iran has American blood on their hands – this attack on Israel, 200 ballistic missiles,” she said. “What we need to do [is] to ensure that Iran never achieves the ability to be a nuclear power. That is one of my highest priorities.”
The death toll in Lebanon from the ongoing Israeli attacks has risen to 2,083 since last October, with 9,869 others injured, according to a statement released Monday by the Lebanese Ministry of Public Health.
Over the past 24 hours, 22 fatalities and 111 injuries were reported in various regions of Lebanon by the Israeli airstrikes, said the statement.
Lord Michael Levy, the former Middle East adviser to Tony Blair, told BBC Radio 5 Live yesterday: “The whole Middle East is potentially in a blow-up situation. And if that happens … how much further can that go for all of us in the world today, there must be a way forward.
“I don’t think there’s any hope for peace with [Israeli Prime Minister] Netanyahu in power,” he added. “I would like to think that Netanyahu could be part of a positive way forward. Regrettably, I just don’t think that is possible at all.”
According to the Zionist news website „Ynet“: „Netanyahu said in a special session of the government on the first anniversary of the October 7 attack that he wants to rename the „Iron Swords“ war to the „Resurrection War“.
„We choose to keep up the fight in a long war of attrition, one that is painful and costly for the enemy,“ said Abu Obeida, spokesman of the militant group‘s armed wing.
He also warned that scores of people taken captive into Gaza on October 7 last year were enduring a „very difficult“ situation.
His statement, broadcast on Al Jazeera, came on the one-year anniversary of the Aqsa Flood operation.
Prime Minister Najib Mikati received a call today from Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan during which they discussed the current situation in Lebanon, especially on the humanitarian level and the relief for the families who were forced to be displaced from areas exposed to Israeli aggression.
During the call, Minister Fidan reiterated Turkey‘s readiness to support Lebanon in its humanitarian needs.
National News Agency correspondent reported that enemy drones are flying at low altitudes in the skies of Beirut and its southern suburbs, adding that these drones have not been absent from the Lebanese airspace, nor have reconnaissance overflights.
The Public Health Ministry‘s Emergency Operations Center issued a statement this morning announcing that Israeli enemy raids on towns and villages in southern Lebanon, Nabatieh, the Bekaa, Baalbek-Hermel, Mount Lebanon and the North resulted in the martyrdom of 23 people and the injury of 93persons.
Macron reiterated his concern over the conflict in Gaza that is continuing despite repeated calls for a ceasefire. „I think we are not being heard,“ he said. „I think it is a mistake, including for the security of Israel,“ he said, adding that the conflict was leading to „hatred.“ Macron also said avoiding an escalation in Lebanon was a „priority.“ „Lebanon cannot become a new Gaza,“ he added.
Reporters have limited access to areas most affected by the fighting, and the Israeli military has released few details about how deep the two divisions now deployed in southern Lebanon have advanced. Interviews with local officials and people who have been recently displaced suggest the destruction is widespread; satellite imagery shows that hundreds of buildings have been destroyed.
The Ministry of Health of Lebanon issued a statement and announced the latest statistics of martyrs and wounded in the attacks of the Zionist army on this country from October 8 of last year.
Also, according to the statement of the Lebanese Ministry of Health, 9,653 people have bene wounded in Israeli attack on Lebanon.
Israel launches the heaviest air strikes on Beirut so far with dozens reportedly killed across Lebanon over the past day.
At least 18 Palestinians are killed in an Israeli jet fighter attack on the Tulkarem refugee camp in the occupied West Bank with the death toll expected to rise.
The Israeli response was yet another example of what Austin privately characterized as Netanyahu’s government “playing with house money”: taking big shots at its adversaries, knowing that the United States, as Israel’s chief ally, would throw its military and diplomatic weight behind it.
Some speculated that Biden’s new lame-duck status had further emboldened Netanyahu, who thought a possible Trump return to the White House would mean more U.S. support for Israel and less complaining. Just days before the attacks on Shukr and Haniyeh, after giving a table-thumping speech to Congress, Netanyahu had visited the former president and newly crowned Republican presidential nominee at his Florida residence.
The Lebanese health minister announced on Wednesday that the death toll from Israeli attacks on Lebanon has risen to 1,974, with another 9,384 injured since Oct. 8 of last year.
Firas Alabiad said at a press conference in Beirut that the Israeli onslaught has also claimed the lives of 127 children.
Israeli airstrikes have killed 40 staffers of medical and emergency teams, in addition to damaging dozens of healthcare facilities, he added.
The director of the World Health Organisation Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said at a press conference on Thursday that 28 health workers were killed in Israeli attacks over the past 24 hours in Lebanon.
„Many (other) health workers are not reporting to duty and fled the areas where they work due to bombardments,“ Ghebreyesus said in an online press briefing. „This is severely limiting the provision of mass trauma management and continuity of health services.“
WHO‘s representative in Lebanon Dr Abdinasir Abubakar told the briefing that all of the healthcare workers killed in the past day had been on duty, helping with the wounded.
A total of nearly 2,000 people have been killed, including 127 children, and 9,384 injured since the start of Israeli attacks on Lebanon over the last year, the country‘s health ministry said. The WHO said this included 73 healthcare workers.
Madame President, Excellencies,
The raging fires in the Middle East are fast becoming an inferno.
Exactly one week ago, I briefed the Security Council about the alarming situation in Lebanon.
Since then, things have gone from bad to much, much worse….
United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres on Wednesday reiterated his urgent call for an end to violence and a diplomatic resolution in the Middle East shortly after Israel‘s foreign minister declared that the U.N. chief was barred from entering the country, a move that drew international condemnation.
„The raging fires in the Middle East are fast becoming an inferno,“ Guterres told a meeting of the U.N. Security Council, denouncing Israel‘s „relentless airstrikes across Lebanon,“ devastation of the Gaza Strip, and obstruction of a cease-fire agreement that could pull the region back from the brink of all-out war.
At least 55 people were killed by Israeli strikes across Lebanon on Tuesday, Lebanon’s health ministry said, noting that over 150 were also wounded.
The Lebanese health ministry has reported that Israeli air strikes on Sunday killed at least 109 individuals and left 364 others wounded across the country.
(August 9, 2024)
In an earlier statement in 2020 to CNN Türk, Russian Ambassador to Turkey Alexei Yerkhov said, ‘Whether [the system] is used or not is a decision for the country that owns it. Turkey purchased the product they wanted from us. The owner of this system is Turkey. It is entirely dependent on what Turkey decides. Whether you go to the beach with it, carry potatoes or mount a machine gun on it for war, keeping it in the ‘garage’ is your right.”
(May 19, 2019)
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has said Turkey and Russia would jointly produce S-500 defence systems after Ankara’s controversial purchase of the S-400 missile defence system from Moscow.
Erdogan criticized the international community for enabling Israel‘s actions, saying that as Tel Aviv continues to receive „weapons and ammunition support from its backers,“ it becomes „increasingly reckless, defying all humanity, humanitarian values, and international law.“
He stressed that Israel‘s „politics of madness,“ already seen in Gaza and Ramallah, must not be allowed to spread to Lebanon and other countries in the region.
„No person of conscience can accept, justify, or deem such a massacre legitimate,“ he said.
(September 24, 2024)
„Indiscriminate Israeli strikes on residential areas under the pretext that Hezbollah weapons are being stored there led to massive civilian casualties and significant destruction of civilian infrastructure,“ Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said in a statement.
Citing the Lebanese Health Ministry, Zakharova said that at least 492 people, including around 150 women and children, were killed by Israel’s „armed aggression“ on Monday.
Israeli airstrikes across large parts of Lebanon have killed at least 1,030 people – including 156 women and 87 children – in less than two weeks, according to Lebanon‘s Health Ministry. For more information, Yuka Royer interviews Ettie Higgins, Deputy Representative at UNICEF, in Beirut, Lebanon.
Around one million Lebanese have also been displaced, according to Nasser Yassin, the minister coordinating Lebanon‘s crisis response.
Lebanon has a total population of around 5.5 million people.
Among those killed by Israeli strikes are 104 children and 194 women. Additionally, 41 health and ambulance workers have been killed and 111 others have been injured since the onset of the war.
“Appalled by the scale of the ongoing massacre in Lebanon,” Jean-Luc Melenchon, a left-wing French politician and a former Member of the European Parliament, said in a post on X.
“Netanyahu is violating the sovereignty of states throughout the region with the complicity of Europe and the USA. The genocide in Gaza is spreading without limits.”
(September 27, 2024)
The Israeli military struck Hezbollah‘s central command in the southern Beirut suburbs on Friday, with Israeli TV reporting that Hamas chief Hassan Nasrallah was the focus of the strikes. The latest bombardment came as the death toll from Israeli strikes inside Lebanon surpassed 700 since Monday, according to the health minister.